Are the Tacoma Narrows Bridges melting?

Despite what your iPhone shows you, the Tacoma Narrows Bridges are not made of wax.

Yet, the iconic steel suspension bridges look like melted wax if viewed through the maps on Apple’s new operating system for iPhones. After seeing the image, transportation officials humorously took to Twitter to reassure us this wasn’t the dissolving version of “Gallopin’ Gertie.”

Here’s the tweet:

Although #ios6 may say differently, we can assure you that the Tacoma Narrows Bridges have not melted: bit.ly/NF6ccQ

The oopy, goopy Tacoma Narrows Bridges — as viewed through the maps app on the new operating system for iPhones.

The tweet drew plenty of attention, having been retweeted almost 300 times by 5 p.m. It joins a number of flaws pointed out in the new iOS 6 Maps application, which include distorted images of bridges, highways and other landmarks. This Tumblr site rounds up a few of the more interesting ones.

WSDOT’s tweet “generated a number of stories on tech-related blogs,” according to a news release. It even caught the attention of The New York Times’ Bits Blog.

“The image definitely caught me by surprise,” said Jeremy Bertrand, WSDOT web editor and the person behind the tweet, in a news release. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and I just had to ask others if they were seeing the same thing. And, sure enough, they were.”

“People have come to depend on mobile devices to make travel decisions,” the news release said. “This is a great example of why travelers are encouraged to check several sources before making a decision.”

WSDOT says people enjoyed the humor.

“Thousands of people use our social media services via Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube and Blogger, so we constantly use what’s available to send out traveler information,” said Steve Pierce, WSDOT communications director. “In the case of this tweet today, many of our 27,000-plus followers appreciated the humor and retweeted it to friends.”